Franchise CEOs, especially ones of growing brands, are eager to open new locations with strong sales.
Because of this, you trust your marketing team to build and deploy strategies that nail the grand openings of your locations. But after grand openings — and with a plethora of other competing priorities — local store marketing can often fall by the wayside for busy marketing departments.
As a result, the marketing reports on your desk may be encouraging; however, they are missing out on a massive opportunity.
This piece will examine the current “one punch” deployed by so many franchise marketing departments today. Then, it will introduce the “two punch” that few are implementing, and which opens up a host of possibilities (and potential results) for forward-thinking franchise CEOs.
The first punch: grand openings
As the franchise market grows increasingly competitive and consumers are only harder and harder to reach, ongoing brand awareness is crucial for staying top of mind with consumers and driving consistent new and repeat foot traffic. While national marketing efforts help provide a baseline of brand awareness, curiosity, and interest in your brand, local efforts are crucial for driving sustained traffic and stronger customer relationships.
Usually, brands focus on awareness at the local level with grand openings so a location can make a splash when entering a new market or neighborhood. They’re also an excellent opportunity to provide opening-focused promotions and nurture first-time customers with a goal of developing them into long-term customers. And of course, they offer a tremendous opportunity for local owners to start meeting individuals in the community (more on that in a bit).
A grand opening is your first “punch” into a new market. It jump starts sales and, therefore, allows owners to start paying back loans, investors, and other stakeholders. But the messaging and resources poured into grand openings are only intended to drive immediate consumer interest and trials. Because of that focus on immediacy, grand opening plans are not designed to provide sustainable, long term awareness.
Grand openings are certainly critical to establishing a foothold. However, the initial energy and interest generated wanes quickly without continued awareness.
Brand health and survival depend on your ability to consistently stand out in the increasingly-competitive franchise landscape. Local awareness provides constant buzz around your brand, enabling it to outcompete. If broader, top-of-the-funnel messaging and a grand opening amount to your marketing’s “first punch,” continual awareness at the local level is the necessary “second punch.”
The second punch: community marketing
The energy and funding franchisors put into national campaigns, brand
awareness, and the grand opening spark consumer interest — but only at the start. As the grand opening fades into the past, consumer attention about a location fizzles out.
Community marketing helps your franchise locations achieve the consistent awareness needed to not only regain but maintain steady consumer top-of-mind awareness.
Traditionally, franchises approach community marketing as a way to make contact with their local consumers in the physical places they frequent. Put another way, this means having the right messages in the right places.
This can involve, for instance, owners mapping out places where they’re target consumers will go throughout their days. Based on those routines, owners can mobilize a variety of strategies, whether that be placing signage in high-traffic areas or building longer term partnerships with vital community areas like schools or churches. And this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to community marketing strategies.
The obstacles preventing fully-optimized community marketing
There are, however, a variety of challenges that hold franchises back from optimizing their community marketing. Without the right resources to get community marketing off the ground — and without the right tools and technology to see community marketing’s mid- to long-term results — franchise owners might treat community marketing solely as a nice-to-have or, at worst, give up on it.
But if franchisors can help franchisees successfully leverage community
marketing, their owners will build strong local, human connections across and within trade areas that are both measurable and meaningful. Community marketing done right allows owners to tap into their natural instincts as both business owners and members of their communities. Importantly, it rests on franchisors to enable owner success with community marketing.
We take a deeper dive into LSM strategies and the challenges that can hold them back in this whitepaper.
Community marketing boosts store earnings
Devising the necessary community marketing strategies takes an inordinate amount of time for owners to hone on their own, especially considering the amount of time owners need to take to master their operations and other core metrics.
That’s why it’s critical for a franchise-level commitment to LSM – and it starts in the CEO’s office. As a result, not only will owners see more traffic to their locations, but they’ll feel confident that their executive leadership is providing them the right support so they can excel within their four walls.
CEOs have the opportunity to take significant portions of the awareness equation off of owners’ plates. This gives owners more opportunities to invest in the right people, drive retention, and spend more time devoting energy to the areas that will have immediate impacts on their business.
Doing this requires the right technology and means to measure local awareness efforts. We’d love to walk you through our proprietary platform to show you exactly how LOMA can help you set your owners up for consistent, efficient success. Schedule a demo with our team to learn more today.
For further information, reach out to sales@lomafunds.com, or visit our website.
